War Lord recap

Aethelstan, the king Uhtred made, breaks the oath he swore, invades Northumbria and takes the last kingdom in Britain outside Saxon rule, forcing its lords - Uhtred among them - and the kings of the Scots, the Strathclyde Britons and the Welsh to accept him as overlord. Uhtred, old and wanting only peace, is squeezed by the king's new favourites: the Norse convert Ingilmundr, whom Aethelstan trusts above anyone, and the ambitious Ealdred, who covets Bebbanburg and seizes the fortress while Uhtred is away. Uhtred takes it back by trickery. Meanwhile Anlaf, the Norse king of Dublin, assembles a great alliance of Scots, Strathclyde Britons and the Norse of Ireland and Northumbria to destroy Aethelstan and divide his kingdoms, and offers Uhtred a crown to join it or stand aside. Uhtred chooses against the invaders. The armies meet at Brunanburh, where a day-long slaughter ends with the alliance broken, Constantine's son dead and Anlaf fleeing to his ships. Aethelstan is left ruler of all the English; Uhtred survives, keeps Bebbanburg, and goes home to the sea.

Earlier in the series: Uhtred of Bebbanburg, born to a Northumbrian lord, raised by Danes and pagan all his life, spent forty years as the sword of the Christian kings of Wessex and Mercia - Alfred, then Alfred's son Edward and daughter Aethelflaed - while never losing sight of his real purpose: Bebbanburg, the sea fortress stolen from him as a boy, which he finally took back by storm. He also raised, taught and repeatedly saved Alfred's grandson Aethelstan, whose enemies called him a bastard to keep him from the throne. When Edward died, Uhtred was dragged into the succession war, endured captivity at the hands of a brutal enemy champion, and saw Aethelstan's rivals destroyed at Lundene. Aethelstan was crowned king of Wessex, Mercia and East Anglia, the mightiest ruler in Britain, and swore to Uhtred that he would never invade Northumbria while Uhtred lived. Northumbria, the last kingdom outside Saxon rule, had been held by Uhtred's son-in-law Sigtryggr; since Sigtryggr's death it has passed to his brother Guthfrith, a drunkard Uhtred despises and is nonetheless sworn to. Uhtred is old now, wants no more wars, and has Finan, Benedetta and his family around him in the fortress above the sea.

So far: Aethelstan breaks his oath. He marches an army north, takes Northumbria for himself, and Guthfrith's kingship collapses; the king flees his own country rather than face the Saxons. Uhtred, who wanted no part of any of it, finds his lands inside a Saxon realm for the first time in his life. Aethelstan then summons the rulers of Britain to acknowledge him as their overlord, and one by one they do it - Constantine of Alba, Owain of Strath Clota, the kings of Wales - and Uhtred, the man who put Aethelstan on his throne, is required to swear with the rest. The king receiving those oaths is not the young man Uhtred taught: he is imperious, convinced that God intends him to rule the whole island, and surrounded by new favourites. Two of them matter. Ingilmundr is a Norse lord turned devout Christian, the man Aethelstan trusts and loves above all others, and whom Uhtred mistrusts on sight without being able to say why. Ealdred is a young West Saxon given authority over the north, contemptuous of Uhtred and open about how much he would like Bebbanburg for himself. Uhtred goes home understanding that his peace is over and that the king's men will not leave his fortress alone.

So far: The king's men take what they want. Drawn away from home, Uhtred loses Bebbanburg to Ealdred, who occupies it with the king's warrant while the garrison has no orders that would let it resist, and Guthfrith's flight ends with the deposed king dead. Landless, with only his household warriors and the help of his neighbour Egil Skallagrimmrson, Uhtred does not attempt a siege he could never win: he takes his fortress back by a trick, which restores his home and puts him in open defiance of Aethelstan's authority. While the Saxons quarrel over the north, a far larger danger gathers in the west. Anlaf, the Norse king of Dublin, has built an alliance to break Aethelstan and carve up his kingdoms - the Norse of Ireland and of Northumbria, Constantine and the Scots, Owain of Strath Clota, all of them men who knelt to the Saxon king and resented it. Anlaf seeks Uhtred out and makes him an offer: Northumbria, and a crown, if he joins the invasion or simply keeps his men at home. Uhtred has every reason to hate Aethelstan by now, and the choice is genuinely open - an old man with a fortress to protect, working out which oath still binds him and which side would leave the north standing.

So far: The invasion comes. Anlaf's fleets land, his allies march, and Aethelstan calls out the levies of all his kingdoms. Uhtred makes his choice: whatever he owes Aethelstan personally, he will not stand aside while a Norse and Scottish army takes Northumbria, and he brings his men to the muster with Finan and Egil beside him. What he carries with him is worth more than the numbers he adds, because he has met Anlaf and knows something of how the alliance means to fight. The two armies come together at Brunanburh, and the battle is the largest and worst Uhtred has seen in a lifetime of them: shield wall grinding against shield wall hour after hour, the Saxon line bending, men dying in their thousands, and the whole of Aethelstan's kingdom resting on whether it holds. Old as he is, Uhtred is in the line, and the day turns on the flanks, where his judgement is needed more than his sword arm.

So far: The alliance is destroyed. The Saxon line holds through the long day and then breaks the enemy, and the Norse and Scottish army is slaughtered as it flees. Constantine's son is among the dead, the northern kings' strength is broken, and Anlaf escapes with the remains of his fleet to Ireland. Ingilmundr, the man Aethelstan trusted and loved above everyone, is revealed to have been the enemy's from the start. Aethelstan is left the undisputed ruler of all the English and the overlord of Britain, and Brunanburh becomes the victory his name is remembered for. Uhtred, who fought the battle for the north rather than for the king, comes out of it alive: he keeps Bebbanburg, Ealdred's claim on it is finished, and the two men are reconciled in the plain way that survivors of the same slaughter are. He rides home with Finan to Benedetta and his family, an old man who has fought his last battle, and takes up again the only thing he ever really wanted - the fortress above the sea, and the chance to die in his own hall rather than in a shield wall.

The alliance is destroyed at Brunanburh. After a day of shield wall against shield wall the Saxon line holds and then breaks the enemy, and the Norse and Scottish army is slaughtered as it runs. Constantine loses his son, the northern kings' strength is broken, and Anlaf escapes with what is left of his fleet back to Ireland. Ingilmundr, the favourite Aethelstan trusted and loved above everyone, is revealed to have been the enemy's man, a betrayal that costs the king more privately than the battle cost him in warriors. Aethelstan is left the undisputed ruler of all the English and overlord of Britain, and the victory becomes the thing his name is remembered for. Uhtred, who fought for the north rather than for the king, comes out of it alive and with what he wanted: Bebbanburg is his, Ealdred's claim on it is finished, and a king who has broken one oath is in no position to break another. He rides home with Finan to Benedetta and his family, an old man who has fought his last battle, and takes up again the only thing he ever truly wanted - the fortress above the sea, and the prospect of dying in his own hall rather than in a shield wall. The series ends with him there, alive, holding the place he spent a lifetime taking back.